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In the European multi-centre study BeSeCu, interviews in seven countries were conducted in order to explore emotional, behavioural and cognitive responses during disasters as experienced by survivors. Interviews (either in groups or one-to-one) were run by type of event: terror attack, fire, collapse of a building, earthquake and flood. While the environmental cues and ability to recognise what was happening varied in different disasters, survivor responses tended to be more universal across events, and were most often adaptive and non-selfish. Several peritraumatic factors related to current levels of posttraumatic stress were identified, while memory quantity did not differ as a function of event type or posttraumatic stress. Time since event had a small effect on what was recalled. Based on the findings, suggestions for emergency training are made. Word count Abstract: 127 Word count: 7894 without tables